He is best known for his collaboration with Bong Lian and Shing-Tung Yau in which they establish some enumerative geometry conjectures motivated by mirror symmetry.

[1] Liu then went to study in the United States, obtaining a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1993 under Shing-Tung Yau.

Liu joined the University of California, Los Angeles faculty in 2000, where he was promoted to full professor in 2002.

[1] In September 2003, Liu was appointed as the head of Zhejiang University's mathematics department.

[3] Liu is currently the executive director of the Center of Mathematical Sciences at Zhejiang University.